Political controversy over Hunger Index Report

Wednesday, October 16, 2019  Tamil Comments

The Global Hunger Index Report for the year 2019 has caused some political controversy. With India ranked at 102 out of 117 countries, it has come as a lot of embarrassment. Ours is the worst-performing in Asia as per the report. Pakistan is at 94, Bangladesh 88, and Sri Lanka at 66.

The Congress party has expectedly hit out at Modi. Its leaders and spokespersons have suggested that things have deteriorated since 2014. "India's rank in the Global Hunger Index has continuously worsened ever since the BJP Govt took charge in 2014. Our situation has gone from 'moderate' to 'serious' in just 5 years. The question arises, who are they going to blame this on?" the party said.

The truth is that the controversy is unbecoming. As per IFPRI, the rankings and index scores from the report cannot be accurately compared to ranking and index scores from previous reports. As such, there has been no fall in ranking since 2014.